You may think we’re a little crazy for our before-dawn departure, but the idea was to reduce how much time we would drive through the burning sunlight before reaching Colorado. Our objective for this excursion was a handful of missing pages in the DeLorme Atlas for the state of Colorado. Much like our home state, Colorado has vast tracts of area deemed too difficult to inhabit at some point in the early 20th century, that are not served by roads meant for automotive travel. Thus, our quest of reaching every page on the atlas and finding a cache can prove pretty darn tricky sometimes.

 

Santa Fe, NM

Our morning started in the new tradition of rolling out the door intent on stopping in Santa Fe for a bite somewhere we had not been before. This time that was The Pantry. I’m often both amused and leery of restaurants named after parts of a house. This one turned out to be a pantry I would raid frequently if it were much closer to being part of our house.

Antonito, CO

Our next stop was Antonio, CO. We figured a leg-stretch was in order, so we selected a few caches to go searching for. The first was near the welcome center, which started its existence as a train depot, and still has that rustic charm one can always associate with keepsakes of the Gold Rush days that someone has lovingly maintained, restored, or repurposed. We also took the opportunity to browse the local farmers’ market. This late in a particularly dry summer, there were unsurprisingly slim pickings, however, we made the discovery of “Cowboy Candy,” a sweet, pickled jalapeño creation from Flying Mookey Acres. The hot, sweet, slightly tart, and amazingly green flavor of the creation was exciting to the tongue, and we found ourselves buying a jar for the road, along with some Schnozberry Jam. At the time of this entry we don’t yet know what schnozberries taste like, but we look forward to finding out.

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

Onward and upward we travelled, eventually leaving behind the convenience of 4G, 3G, and then even cellular signal. Having misunderstood the way Google Maps mobile app displays distance on a multi-stop trip, we assumed a very short overall day, and opted for a side-trip when we saw the signs announcing Great Sand Dunes National Park. Apparently in certain seasons there are jolly little streams at the borders of the dune field so you can enjoy sand-sledding, then splash about when you get to the bottom. In early August, however, the streams have retreated underground due to insufficient run-off entering the watershed. The phenomenon of a sea of sand, piled in ever-changing peaks hundreds of feet high, sitting completely enclosed by verdant mountains and high prairie is well worth going to see, even if there’s no water save what you bring in. We opted out of the idea of sand-sledding after Raz burned his toes trying to walk barefoot across the beach-like sands. Even though it was a perfectly pleasant 70° F (21° C) day, the sand had been baking for hours by the time we arrived.

Poncha Springs

We were parched when we found our way back to the initial road, and wanted to stop for a drink, however the first 3 “towns” we drove through had no obvious signs of retail activity, no restaurants, no filling stations, not even a convenience store or vending machine outside a Post Office! We were beginning to despair as we reached the town of Poncha Springs. Finding a filling station immediately after the welcome sign gave us some hope, and the return of 4G for our mobiles gave us motivation to seek out a watering-hole and potentially grab some grub too, since hours of trudging through deep and shifting sands tend to build up an appetite. The Hunger Trailer was our second-choice, but the first Food Truck which was listed on Yelp was nowhere to be seen. In retrospect, we consider the absence of the first-choice truck to have been fortuitous. Our hunger was not only sated, but our taste buds were taken out-on-the-town and masterfully seduced. We left feeling amazed at the experience of a humble food-truck in a middle-of-nowhere town, and remembered one of the core reasons we love to travel. Every mile of road is a new adventure, and you never can be certain of what new amazing thing you will discover when you turn the next corner.

Colorado DeLorme page 59

Most of the time we find the cache we are looking for, generally because we plan it that way, and don’t choose to go after the caches that many searchers before have failed to find. Every once in a while, though, we have to place a cache on our list that shows many failed attempts at location. This is generally because we are headed to a region remote enough that there are fewer than 5 caches in the entire objective area. Page 59 of the Colorado Delorme was one such area. We could not get within a mile of the first cache we selected due to the wrath of Mother Nature. Apparently during the spring runoff of 2017, the road to the cache location was erased from the face of the planet by a pretty epic flood. Said flood was epic enough that even with the influx of substantial funds to the Colorado budget from the legalization of Cannabis, that the road is still closed, and reconstruction plans are not posted over a year after the flood.

 

We enjoyed our foray through what is absolutely beautiful, and remarkably healthy Alpine forest to fall short of the cache, so the adventure was in no way a loss. We did, however, also have to press on about 30 extra miles, and race across a busy mountain highway on foot for a second opportunity to check off the page we were after. Fortunately, after that harrowing dash across the highway, we did not have to climb far up the twisting mountain trail to reach our objective, and the cache was present and easily found.

Colorado DeLorme page 72

Mad dashes across high speed-limit thoroughfares seemed to be a pattern for the trip, as we had to repeat the act again on page 72, then shimmy up a rockslide mountain-goat style. Our parking spot was next to one of the most picturesque ranches I’ve had pleasure to see. The identical red buildings clustered at the edge of a bright green meadow were likely used as a guest or “Dude” ranch up to very recently. Everything looked fairly closed down at the moment, though, so I must wonder if the reduction of road travel and increase of time spent online since 2008 have made hard times for guest ranches.

 

Colorado DeLorme page 82
Again for page 82, we raced across the highway from the available parking to seek out a gnome who apparently migrated up the cliff side from the valley below. As you can see, we found him. We love finding caches like this, that have some extra charm and flare. The reward of discovering a hidden object of any sort is what keeps us caching, but when there’s a creative anecdote, or a bit of surprise good-humor in the hide, the joy of the find is that much sweeter.

 

Colorado City, CO

The late afternoon monsoons rolled in on us, and rather than risk getting stranded on a washed-out road in the middle of nowhere, we abandoned the last several caches planned for the trip, racing the edge of the storm to Colorado City. I think we have rarely encountered a town quite so spread out. Our own beloved Albuquerque does have a 30-mile diameter footprint, but there are at least a couple distinct concentrations of businesses and residential developments in that footprint to let you know civilization is happening. We passed the City Limit sign in Colorado City, and crested a hill to find the entire valley below lightly speckled with randomly placed houses, and an occasional business or two. We kept expecting to happen upon a city center just a little farther along the road, but never found it. At the far edge of the city, we happened upon its singular hotel, and its 3 restaurants (located conveniently across the highway from the hotel). Deciding we had made enough hare-brained forays across this very highway to tempt fate one more time, we instead packed into our room for the night and drowsed away as the storm broke above us.

 

We turned off the A/C and reveled in the old-fashioned marvel of a window that could actually be opened. Through this little portal, we listened to the wild howl of the winds rushing down the Rocky Mountains, and the unmistakable crash of distant thunder, rumbling up the valley. Colorado storms appear to have much more staying-power than the brief atmospheric tantrums we enjoy at home. The thunder, rain, and winds lasted deep into the night, and there was obvious sign of the storm’s passing in myriad puddles strewn about the hotel grounds when we woke in the morning.

 

Interstate 25

Knowing that we were heading home to begin the final preparations for a grand European adventure, we made our way home a straight shot down I-25. Being avid adventurers, however, we could not resist the draw of “just one more cache” entirely. We stopped for several in a long series of caches placed simply to have caches at the I-25 exits. We found several to have their once-furry prairie dog hosts in attendance, and got a welcome chuckle from the finds. We also found some fabulous pastries back across the border in Las Vegas, NM before kicking off our hiking boots back home and calling an end to this adventure in order to prepare for the next.